Since many, if not most, people with schizophrenia hear voices at some point in their disease, what happens if they become deaf? Do they still insist they’re hearing voices? If they are born deaf, do their delusions manifest in a different way?
in terms of “schizophrenia” … deafness, or lack of audible hearing, would have no effect … the “voices” reside within one’s state of mind (perception).
look at it this way … say you are walking and come to the edge of a busy street … cars are whizzing past you. should you cross … or should you wait? an opening appears … is this your chance to cross? you hear something in the back of your mind … telling you to wait.
that voice … was not a “voice” at all … was inside your subconscious. had you been deaf from birth … you’d still hear/perceive that voice.
and, yes … severity of schizophrenia can worsen … and voices become louder and more prevalent … and being able to “reason/rationalize” become less pronounced. there can be environmental or biological factors to blame … as well as genealogical factors.
am sure others will offer differing perspectives as well.
Title edited to clarify subject.
Colibri
General Questions Moderator
The auditory hallucinations experienced by schizophrenics are just that: hallucinations. They don’t depend on sensory input, but are generated within the person’s own mind. Therefore deafness shouldn’t have any effect.
While I can’t speak to the experience of someone who was born deaf, I would guess that symptoms would manifest themselves as obsessive thoughts (which schizophrenics have as well).
From this link - https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/news-articles/0707/07070303 where the study participants were all hearing impaired and diagnosed with schizophrenia.